A known method of transmitting teletext pages is described in "Teletext Specification", Interim Technical Document SPB 492 of the European Broadcasting Union, December 1992. In this known method, a teletext page with first display attributes is transmitted. "Attributes" are understood to mean display properties such as, for example, the colour of characters, blinking, double height and the like. The Level 1 teletext standard, which is currently used worldwide, has a limited number of attributes. Moreover, these attributes have a serial character, which means that they can only be modified in the spaces between words. The "Teletext Specification" therefore provides the transmission of extension signals for transmitting further attributes for display from a predetermined row and column position. The further attributes are added to the Level 1 teletext page and thus "upgrade" this page to a higher display level which is often referred to as Level 2 and Level 3.
An attribute transmitted by the extension signals applies to all subsequent character positions in the same row until it is either modified or reaches the end of the relevant row. The extension signal should therefore be repeated for each row if an attribute is applicable to a plurality of rows.